I might actually install an active fan on one side of the back of the controller, and an exhaust hole on the other. I made a 4 player cabinet with 8 buttons. The downside of this is that by doing so, I will need to install a power connector to the back of the controller for the RPi, as well as an HDMI socket, as well as cutting some holes for ventilation, as RPi 3s run hot. MAME UI pause the games additional buttons and button combos are a must IMO. I like the flexibility of having the controller separate from a bartop or full-sized MAME device because of this, but in the future, my plan is to install a Raspberry Pi 3 or 3b running RetroPie into the interior with the iPAQ controller board, and then just run an HDMI cable out. The benefit of building the unit this way, is that I can just unplug the unit when we're not using it and store it away in a closet, or behind the baby gate in the picture, to keep it from getting damaged. The Arcade Control Panel on the ALP may work fine out-of-the-box without any changes needed based on the instructions below. I just plug the unit into the front USB port and fire up MAME, or whatever emulator program I want at the time. I did mine out beside my house by the trash cans (and partly in the garage when it started raining).īecause I used a USB-based iPAQ controller board, I'm connecting it to a HTPC (home theatre PC) that was already connected to my TV. If you opt to go with 2 players, make sure you give enough space between the two players so that you aren't banging shoulders while playing simultanously.Īlso, I wanted to show that even though you may not have a workshop, you can likely find a place to do the work. This will save in the frustration level later on, believe me. It's best to plan everything on paper prior to doing any cutting. Usually, 6 was the maximum number, so you can save a little bit of money on buttons if you don't think you'll ever need those extra 2 buttons (per player).īecause I wanted to have 2 players, I had to take that into count when designing the button layout, and thus the overall size of the top panel. The control panel uses a keyboard hack from a blue Hot Wheels USB keyboard. It sports a Lexan (plexiglass) cover and T-Molding around the outer border. It will be a desktop controller, except that it will only be useful for Defender and Stargate. Some games that came out around the time of the demise of the arcade actually used this many buttons. I'm working on this for a friend who really likes Defender. Step 2) Optionally assign display text to each control. Then as many times as you need: Step 1) Assign keycodes by clicking on each control. Step 2) Tell the program how you have wired it to the interface. I opted for two players with the joystick, and 8 buttons per player to give me the maximum flexibility on ROMs. Step 1) Create a pictorial view of your panel design. The first step is to decide if you want a single player controller or a two player controller.
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